


skeletons crawling from the shelves

by FiresFromOurHearts



Series: Naruto Prompts [4]
Category: Naruto
Genre: !!!!, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Fire Magic, Founders Week 2020, Gen, Librarian Senju Tobirama, Magic, Magical Realism, Necromancy, Sometimes creatures crawl out of the catacombs into the library and that's just uni, Supernatural Elements, Urban Fantasy, Water Magic, all good things here I promise, dragon - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-28
Updated: 2020-10-28
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:34:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27244300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FiresFromOurHearts/pseuds/FiresFromOurHearts
Summary: Izuna's a security guard for Konoha - a university that deals with magic, for the most part. Most night shifts are fairly quiet, though when the wards go off in the library, Izuna hurries to the scene hoping that there's only a student setting off an explosion by accident or something. Instead, he finds the Head Librarian who he's never met and a creature breathing fire. Somehow, the former is far more dangerous than the latter.Day 5 of Founder's Week:Role reversal|Supernatural creatures
Relationships: Senju Hashirama & Senju Tobirama, Senju Tobirama & Uchiha Izuna, Uchiha Izuna & Uchiha Madara
Series: Naruto Prompts [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982980
Comments: 4
Kudos: 47
Collections: Founders Week 2020





	skeletons crawling from the shelves

Izuna gets the call in the early hours of the morning, before even the grey light of dawn has ventured into the city. The witching hours, some might say. But Izuna knows all hours are witching hours. A spell isn’t powered by a specific time because it’s always a specific time somewhere. But that’s not the point.

Head security guard for Konohagakure currently on shift, Izuna is the one who usually gets the call when there’s been a magical mishap near anywhere important due to his own magical power. Not that Izuna’s specialisation in fire magic, like most of his clan, is relatively helpful when it comes to magical mishaps but he’s one of the most knowledgeable currently working. Cons of working the nightshift, Izuna supposes.

Of course, magical mishaps have an awful tendency to end in explosions so Izuna doesn’t so much as walk towards the library as he does run. The library is, for the most part, safe which is why students have access even though the books have an awful tendency to scream at people they don’t like. The real issue with the library is the catacombs that have a habit of randomly appearing—the things that emerge from beneath the library can be dangerous. Very, very dangerous.

Barrelling through a window, Izuna enters the hallway leading to the library. There are no alarms blaring, not here, but the wards are flickering frantically against Izuna’s skin. Have been the whole time.

Then, with a loud bang that definitely doesn’t come from the wards, the warning from the wards disappears. Izuna didn’t think anyone else tied to the wards had been here, but perhaps he’s wrong.

The glass library door slides open ahead of him as he strides in. Straight away, he’s surrounded by silence, but it doesn’t feel foreboding. It never does in the library.

In the distance, a bout of fire rises above the library shelves—and that’s _far_ from good. Izuna sprints through the shelves, weaving through the maze, and tries to recall what fire-breathing creatures might come from the catacombs.

He’s really hoping it’s a student. A student he can deal with. A strong talking to and it’s all good. A fire-breathing creature from the catacombs? Izuna isn’t helpless but fire against fire surrounded by books isn’t a good idea. And he’s heard that the Head Librarian, though he hasn’t met the man, is likely to rip into you if you do something wrong in the library. At least, that’s what the rumours say.

His shoes slide against the carpet as he skids to a stop just before the fight—and it _is_ a fight. There’s what looks like a small drake and a man Izuna’s never seen before, possibly a student. Behind the drake, a dark opening from the room reveals an entrance to the catacombs.

“Move, you idiot!” The man shouts and Izuna dives, rolling, and avoids a stream of fire. He comes to his feet near the man, who’s glaring at the drake, dark blue drops rolling down his hand and disappearing before they hit the ground. Magic residue. This man likely specialises in water magic, Izuna guesses.

The drake screeches, loud enough to set Izuna’s ears ringing. But Izuna _is_ a security guard, and he moves despite not being able to hear anything now. The drake charges and he splits away from the other man.

Izuna watches as the drake turns away from him, lashing out with his tail which he leaps over. He glances at the other man who, instead of doing the reasonable thing like moving away from the drake, darts forward. As Izuna watches, black climbs from the man’s finger tips up to his wrists, making it look like he dipped his hands in ink. Necromancy.

Creatures made of skeletons slink from everywhere, of varying shapes and sizes. A good number look like house cats, but at least one looks supernatural. The drake snarls, and slams out with its paws. Creatures of skeletons go flying, falling apart into bones that slowly pull themselves back together.

The man’s now just in front of the drake’s jaws full of sharp, pointed teeth. Izuna starts moving, but knows he’ll be too late to stop the drake from injuring the other man. But then, from above, a creature with white bones drops down on top of the drake. It’s impossible, but it looks to be a dragon.

The drake quickly falls to the dragon, slumping beneath the large skeleton and Izuna turns to the man, the only other live being in the library. “What the hell happened here?” He asks, voice raised.

The other man treats him with an irritated expression which Izuna personally thinks is rather unwarranted. “What does it look like? A drake escaped the catacombs. I had to deal with it.”

“And who are you?”

“Senju Tobirama,” the man says and that… that sounds familiar, though Izuna can’t quite remember what relation he has to Hashirama, though they’re both from the Senju Clan. The man seems to catch Izuna’s confusion, and quickly adds, “Hashirama’s brother. Head of the library.”

“Weren’t you on a trip?” Izuna says, because he has a feeling that he heard that during one of his forced meals with Hashirama, who has a habit of asking Madara—and therefore Izuna—over all the time for dinner.

“Yes,” Tobirama says in a clipped tone. “I was exploring some of the catacombs the library was linked to since there are some common ones that always reopen.”

“You were what?” Izuna yelps. The catacombs are dangerous. No one goes down there alone—Madara’s been, Hashirama’s been, and Izuna went down one once, but he didn’t want to ever do it again. “How are you alive?” Which, speaking of, “And why were you fighting a drake?”

“I couldn’t let it cause damage to my library,” Tobirama says, “the books would yell. Now, are you going to flap around or will you help me? There’s a corpse here to get rid of.”

The skeletons are returning from where they came from, though the dragon seems to be happy perched on the body of the drake. “Can’t you just,” Izuna says, wiggling his fingers, “magic it away or something?”

He’s treated with an incredulous expression. “You really aren’t that bright, are you?” Tobirama asks. “That’s not how necromancy works. Besides, I would need to talk to the spirit before I reanimated its body. I’m not a _monster_ , you know. And there are laws about this sort of thing. Now, are you going to help me or just stand there? I might be better off just asking Tōka for help.”

“Your cousin?” Izuna says, squinting. He’s fairly certain Tōka would be asleep, and anyone waking Tōka up in the middle of the night is likely to get their head bitten off—metaphorically, probably.

There’s a creaking of bones as the dragon turns to look at Izuna. Even without skin, it seems to grin at him. “This is Tōka,” Tobirama says, and there’s something that might be a smile on his face. “It has another name, but it’s not so easily pronounceable for the human tongue. Tōka doesn’t mind sharing her name.”

The dragon flaps its wings. It looks exactly like the kind of deadly thing Tōka would like to have named after herself. Izuna feels unnerved by its gaze, though it doesn’t have eyes.

“You said you wanted help?” He says instead, turning to face Tobirama, deciding that he wants out of this library with its weird skeleton creatures as fast as possible.

“I do think we’ll be fine,” Tobirama says, just as a house cat skeleton leaps from a library shelf to his shoulders. “You can continue with your rounds.”

Izuna narrows his eyes at the Senju. “Did your brother mention me? Is that how you know I’m a security guard?”

A moment of silence passes. “No,” Tobirama says slowly, “I knew that because you were wearing the uniform. Though I assume that must mean you’re Madara’s brother. In that case, I will see you at dinner tomorrow.”

Nodding his head, Izuna bids Tobirama goodbye, before fleeing the library with its strange necromancy creatures that he’s never seen before. He has a feeling that dinner tomorrow is going to be very, very interesting. Hopefully, it won’t include animated skeletons or Tōka—both Tōkas.

**Author's Note:**

> me: I don't think I'll write for this prompt.
> 
> my brain: Hey, guess what we're writing for.
> 
> Anyway, enjoy a modern AU with some urban fantasy thrown in. Tobirama is, despite the rumours, a great teacher and all the students who he teaches adore him. I hope you enjoy this thing my brain poured out in a few hours only after I've been out all day. If there's any typos or anything, feel free to let me know. I haven't tried to read through it or anything because my brain is a bit like goop more than anything else. 
> 
> ~~No this definitely isn't born from my original urban fantasy library thing I wrote a week or something ago. Definitely not.~~
> 
> I did have a lot of fun playing around with the magic and the magical realism because that's always fun. I've not got much to say at the moment, so I'll leave you to it. I hope you had fun reading this and thanks for giving it a go!


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